ST.
LOUIS, Jan. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene
Corporation (NYSE: CNC) today announced today it has completed the
previously announced divestiture of Circle Health Group ("Circle
Health"), one of the U.K.'s largest independent operators of
hospitals, to Pure Health, the largest integrated healthcare
network in the Middle East.
"Circle Health is well-positioned to continue delivering
clinical excellence and driving market impact under Pure Health
ownership," said Centene's Chief Executive Officer, Sarah London.
"The close of the transaction reflects Centene's steadfast focus
on and commitment to our core business operations as we continue to
execute against our long-term strategy."
Centene invested in Circle Health in 2019 and acquired the
remaining equity interests in the company in July 2021.
About Centene Corporation
Centene Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, is a leading
healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live
healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach – with local
brands and local teams – to provide fully integrated, high-quality
and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial
healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured
individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to
nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid
and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans)
as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance
Marketplace and the TRICARE program. The Company also contracts
with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a
variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person.
Centene focuses on long-term growth and value creation as well as
the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it
can better serve its members, providers, local communities and
government partners.
Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important
information about the Company, including information that may be
deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about
Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor
relations website, http://investors.centene.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements,
other than statements of current or historical fact, contained in
this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting
the foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as
"believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend,"
"seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could,"
"should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions
(and the negative thereof). Centene (the Company, our, or we)
intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the
safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are
including this statement for purposes of complying with these
safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include,
without limitation, statements about Circle Health's and our future
operating or financial performance, market opportunity, value
creation strategy, competition, expected activities in connection
with completed and future acquisitions and dispositions, our
investments, and the adequacy of our available cash resources.
These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with
respect to future events and are based on numerous assumptions and
assessments made by us in light of our experience and perception of
historical trends, current conditions, business strategies,
operating environments, future developments, and other factors we
believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are subject
to change because they relate to events and depend on circumstances
that will occur in the future, including economic, regulatory,
competitive, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's
actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to
be materially different from any future results, levels of
activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by
these forward-looking statements. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks,
uncertainties, and assumptions. All forward-looking statements
included in this press release are based on information available
to us on the date hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by
law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the
forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether
as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after
the date hereof. You should not place undue reliance on any
forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially
from projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements
due to a variety of important factors, variables, and events
including, but not limited to: our ability to design and price
products that are competitive and/or actuarially sound including
but not limited to any impacts resulting from Medicaid
redeterminations; our ability to maintain or achieve improvement in
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings
and maintain or achieve improvement in other quality scores in each
case that can impact revenue and future growth; our ability to
accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other
operating expenses and reserves, including fluctuations in medical
utilization rates; competition, including our ability to reprocure
our contracts and grow organically; the timing and extent of
benefits from our value creation strategy, including the
possibility that the benefits received may be lower than expected,
may not occur, or will not be realized within the expected time
periods; our ability to manage our information systems effectively;
disruption, unexpected costs, or similar risks from business
transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, and changes in
our relationships with third parties; impairments to real estate,
investments, goodwill, and intangible assets; changes in senior
management, loss of one or more key personnel or an inability to
attract, hire, integrate and retain skilled personnel; membership
and revenue declines or unexpected trends; rate cuts or other
payment reductions or delays by governmental payors and other risks
and uncertainties affecting our government businesses; changes in
healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine;
increased healthcare costs; inflation; changes in economic,
political, or market conditions; changes in federal or state laws
or regulations, including changes with respect to income tax reform
or government healthcare programs as well as changes with respect
to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health
Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (collectively
referred to as the ACA) and any regulations enacted thereunder; tax
matters; disasters or major epidemics; changes in expected contract
start dates; changes in provider, state, federal, foreign, and
other contracts and delays in the timing of regulatory approval of
contracts, including due to protests; the expiration, suspension,
or termination of our contracts with federal or state governments
(including, but not limited to, Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, or
other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or
outcome of legal or regulatory proceedings or matters, including,
but not limited to, our ability to resolve claims and/or
allegations made by states with regard to past practices, including
at Centene Pharmacy Services (formerly Envolve Pharmacy Solutions,
Inc. (Envolve)), as our pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) subsidiary,
within the reserve estimate we previously recorded and on other
acceptable terms, or at all, or whether additional claims, reviews
or investigations will be brought by states, the federal government
or shareholder litigants, or government investigations; challenges
to our contract awards; cyber-attacks or other privacy or data
security incidents; the exertion of management's time and our
resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes
required in connection with complying with the terms of our
contracts and the undertakings in connection with any regulatory,
governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions
or dispositions; any changes in expected closing dates, estimated
purchase price, or accretion for acquisitions or dispositions;
restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; a
downgrade of the credit rating of our indebtedness; the
availability of debt and equity financing on terms that are
favorable to us; foreign currency fluctuations; and risks and
uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This list of
important factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss
certain of these matters more fully, as well as certain other
factors that may affect our business operations, financial
condition, and results of operations, in our filings with the SEC,
including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form
10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due to these important
factors and risks, we cannot give assurances with respect to our
future performance, including without limitation our ability to
maintain adequate premium levels or our ability to control our
future medical and selling, general and administrative
costs.
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SOURCE Centene Corporation